


Curse Breaker

by Vailee



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Bigotry & Prejudice, Curses, Everyone has magic, Liberties taken with how hospitals work, M/M, Magic, Magic by class, Please forgive me I don't understand people or emotions, Urban Fantasy, only a little?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-01-16 04:44:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18514153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vailee/pseuds/Vailee
Summary: They tell stories about Destroyers. About how dangerous they are, how deadly. They're the big bad in all the movies and books, it's a common theme to have them destroy someone, mind, body, and soul. To leave nothing but a husk behind, or a puppet.They're also the only chance you have to get rid of the curse on your sister.





	1. First Meeting

You glance down at the business card in your hands and reread the address again. Derse? Check. Prince St? Check. Number 168? Check.

You look back up at the storefront before you. Derse Ends, it proudly proclaims in a fancy, cursive font. You’re not sure if that's supposed to be a pun, or perhaps a play on words but you need to first your hands to keep them from shaking. It would be innocuous you think, if you didn't know what waited beyond those doors. As it is, all you can think is that it's some sort of threat, or a prophecy. Derse is the suburb the shop is located in and you don't want it to end. At least not while you're in it.

Boxing up those thoughts and shoving them to the back of your mind you concentrate on the storefront. One display window showcases a pile of creepy looking books and a bunch preserved animals in jars, the other showcases a pen of adorable, innocent looking kittens.

You'd think this place weird and unsettling if you'd just stumbled upon it, nevermind looking for it, knowing that inside was a Destroyer.

Welp, better pull up your bootstraps and get this over with. You take a deep breath and stride towards the shop.

The door makes a ridiculously happy meow when you push it open. Do cats meows normally express so much emotion? You suppose you can tell what the dogs are feeling through their barks, why not a cats meow? You suppose the general idea of cats is as lazy bastards that know things off shelves. You don’t really picture them sounding happy.

But you're stalling. Standing in the doorway to the shop thinking about cats and dogs is not productive. Holding your head high and shoulders back you step forward and let the door shut behind you. You are officially in the Destroyers domain.

Inside the shop is just as odd a mix of items as displayed in the front windows. Aside from the pen of kittens at the front you see bird cages and fish tanks. You're a little disappointed, if they're going to have animals in here why not puppies? Not that you can't appreciate the cuteness of other animals, but your family has always had a soft spot for dogs. 

Mixed amongst the live animals are more preserved ones in jars, books, an assortment of antiques, various technological devices and… puppets? Certain a very eclectic group of products to sell at one shop.

In your scan of the shop, you spot the single other person inside. They're at the far end, slumped behind a counter. They're wearing a pair of sunglasses despite how dark it is in here so you can't see their eyes but they appear to be asleep. As you approach you determine the figure is male, about your age, and very very pale.

You hesitate when you reach the counter. Is this the Destroyer? With sunnies, an oversized sweater and ripped jeans he doesn't seem very scary. Still, you’ve heard stories about Destroyers. About the things they can do and it’s not like his appearance is tied to his powers. After hovering in front of the counter for a while, fiddling with the business card you scour up the courage to speak.

“Ah, hello?”

“Sup.” You’re a bit nonplussed at his nonchalance, also that he apparently wasn't sleeping. You're not sure what's worse, the embarrassment of standing there awkwardly in front of him for so long being a coward, or the creepiness of finding out that you were being watched the entire time.

“Are you Strider?”

“I'm a Strider.” Oh God, there's more than one? “Am I the Strider you're looking for? That depends I suppose. Are you looking for the cool Strider? Author of the beloved Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff comic, Sbhj for short, wicked mad rapper and DJ Strinasty in the club circuit and amateur archeologist? If so you've found him. Plucked me right out of the faceless masses swarming over this town like a child hyper-focusing on that one toy they desperately want to play with today. Except it's on the bottom of the toy chest. And you gotta go digging through all the over toys, throwing them across the room to get them out of the way in the hope of catching just a glimpse of my glorious face.”

You're left rather speechless, standing there blinking at him as he delivers this monologue totally monotone. His face never changes from its stoic expression.

“Uh, I'm looking for Dirk…?” You say meekly. Holding out the business card for him to see. If he looks at it you can't tell.

“Ah, you're looking for the less cool Strider. Don't worry, he may not be as cool as me but he's still a Strider. Which means he's leagues ahead of everyone else. I may be the Usain Bolt of coolness, best in the world but he's the Tyson Gay, second best in the world.” He pauses. “Emphasis on the gay.”

“Well, uh, is there a chance I could see him?”

“Oh yeah. Sure. Wait right there.” He gets to his feet in one impressive smooth movement and disappears. And you’re not using that as an adjective to describe him going out the back of the store, he just straight up disappears in front of your eyes.

He's back shortly. Reappearing just as suddenly as he left.

“He'll be right with you. You can wait here if you want, or you can just go on back.” He jerks a thumb at the doorway to the left leading behind the shop front. Presumably where he's just been.

The doorway is… a doorway. A painted wooden frame that matches the rest of the shop decor. From where you stand you can just see a wall like all the others in the shop. It appears to be some sort of hallway. A totally ordinary doorway. And yet.

You stick your sweaty palm into your pockets and swallow way too loudly in the silent shop as you walk to the doorway.

On the other side is indeed a hallway, ending in a right turn. You can see two doors leading off it on the right wall, while the left has several windows that do nothing to lift the gloom of the place.

“He's upstairs, stairs are at the end of the hall, I left his door open for you.” The guy at the counter says. When you glance back at him he's gone back to slumping in his chair, facing the front door.

“Ah, thank you?” It comes as more of a question than you meant it to. He doesn't reply verbally at first, just gives you a thumbs up. Then as you step forward, he speaks, almost like it's an afterthought.

“Good luck.” A shiver runs down your back at the flat words and you realize you're all tense and hunched forward. Taking a deep breath you push your shoulders back and take big confident steps forward.

This is fine. You tell yourself. Everything will be fine.

Nothing of note happens as you walk down the hallway and up the stairs. Aside from your nerves ratcheting slowly higher as you get closer to the Destroyer.

At the top of the stairs is a small open area with another hallway leading off it. The hallway goes down the middle of the building with several doors on both sides. At the far end, on the left one door has been left open. It’s just as dark and gloomy in the hallway up here as it is downstairs but light filters out of the open doorway.

It’s actually kind of inviting. A cheerful contrast to the rest of this place. Strange, considering that’s where you’re going to meet the Destroyer.

Welp, no point loitering around. You’ve got a deal to strike. Or a contractor to employ. Or something. Taking another deep breath you approach the doorway.

You’re not really sure what you’re expecting when you reach the room. You’ve never met a Destroyer before, you’ve only heard stories. And all of them just highlight how dangerous Destroyers were. How destroying things isn’t just something their magic is, but something intrinsically part of their nature. As important to them as eating and drinking. And the stories always focus on the Destroyers using their powers against other humans.

You’re not exactly expecting the room to be filled with body parts or something, but you’re not really expecting it to be a perfectly normal meeting room either.

Admittedly you haven’t been in many of the rooms in this building, but it’s the first you’ve entered with big windows letting in lots of sunlight and lighting the room up. On the back wall is an extremely large screen, covering up most of the wall. In front of it, in the middle of the room is a large table made of glass and metal. Upon it lies a keyboard, a tablet, and a phone. Around the table is an odd number of chairs. One directly in front of you in the middle of the table, one at the right end and the last on the far side.

It is also empty, despite what the guy downstairs said.

You don’t have much time to do more than recognize this before a voice comes from behind you.

“Oh.” You are immediately tense. There is someone behind you. Someone who might be the Destroyer. Someone quiet enough to surprise even in the silence of the building.

You spin around, taking a step back into the room to put more space between the two of you. You look at the guy standing in the hallway behind you and your brain decides to take a little vacation.

There’s enough space between the two of you that your shadow doesn’t fall on him, giving you the full effect of the light hitting him. It’s like he glows. It’s like he’s some mystical quest giver in a fantasy game. It’s like the gods themselves are pointing him out to you. It’s like the moment in romcoms where the love interests meet and everything goes into slow motion. 

You’re not sure how long you stare at him, but when he speaks it doesn’t seem like he’s noticed anything off. “Did Dave just send you right up?”

“Dave?” You question before it clicks. “Oh. The guy downstairs? Yeah.” Well, he offered the choice of staying or coming up. The same thing right? “You’re Strider?” Then remembering Dave’s spiel downstairs. “Dirk Strider?” He nods.

“If you’d like to take a seat?” He gestures at the table behind you. It’s your turn to nod before you follow the request. As he walks around the table to the seat on the other side, you just drink him in.

Again you’re not sure what you were expecting. Someone,  _ something _ scary mostly. Instead, he’s just… an attractive guy. You’re not sure what to make of his attire. He’s wearing some ratty sneakers, a pair of tight black jeans and a white button-down like he’s trying to make some attempt at being professional. Of course, the spiked up hair doesn’t fit that idea any more than his bottom half does. When he sits down and faces you, you see that his eyes truly are orange, not just when the light hits them. Like he’s wearing contacts. You wonder if he is wearing contacts.

“So, you’re interested in procuring my services?” He asks, pulling the tablet towards himself and powering it on. His eyes never leave yours, his expression is stoic. Like Dave’s downstairs.

“Yeah. I need to get rid of a curse.”

“That is within my abilities. You didn’t bring it with you?”

“No. Is that possible?” He tilts his head to the side like a curious puppy and wow is that adorable.

“If it was on you, you would have brought it automatically. As it is not, you could have brought in the cursed item.”

“Ah, I thought-” You thought he meant separating the curse and bringing it in by itself, and now you feel like a fool for not realizing exactly what he meant. You shake your head. “Nevermind, it wouldn’t have been very easy to bring the curse here.”

“It’s on a big, ungainly object?”

“You could say that.” You hesitate, but really if he’s going to help he’ll find out anyway. No point in keeping it secret. “It’s on my sister.” He pauses in the act of lifting the stylus out of the tablet case.

“Serious enough that it’s safer she avoids traveling?”

“You could say that.” You repeat. “She’s unresponsive. Not easy getting an unconscious body here.”

“That is serious.” He opens an app on the table and makes a note, still facing you. You try to tilt your head at the right angle to be able to see but for the first time, the light is your enemy, making it difficult to see through the reflected light. You’re so busy staring at the tablet you almost,  _ almost _ miss the slight quirk of his lips and what a tragedy that would have been.

“Yes. I took her to a Prospitan hospital when I found her. I don’t think they’d appreciate me just unhooking her from all their machine so we can pop down here.”

“No.” He breaks eye contact to look down at the table but doesn’t write anything. “I don’t believe they’d be very open to that. How much do you know about the curse? Do you know how she got it? What it does?”

“I wasn't there when she got cursed. I was at work when I came home and found her-” facts. You’re just telling him facts. He doesn’t need or want to know how it felt to come home and find her like that. Which was where that sentence was veering. It’s your turn to look down. “She was already unconscious. She had a flower that I’d never seen before, looked like she’d pricked herself on it. It does seem like a Snow White curse? Or maybe Sleeping Beauty, what with the prick that caused it. I don’t really know what the difference between them is. Only what the fairytales say” You admit.

“They are pretty similar in the stories. But it’s not so much how they were cursed as... a Snow White curse is the original curse as it was intended while a Sleeping Beauty curse has been tampered with, for good or ill.”

“I see. Well, I wouldn’t know how to tell the difference anyway. So I an unsure which Jade has.”

“We’ll go with the assumption that it’s a Snow White curse, for now, I’ll be able to tell if it’s different once I’ve seen her.”

“So you can help her.” You look up and meet his eyes.

“Of course. It is a death curse so it won’t be as easy or as quick as getting rid of some bad luck, but I can do it.”

“A death curse?” You blurt out alarmed. “But she’s not dead.”

“She would be, in the long term without the hospital right? Supposedly she could be in suspended animation by the curse but that’s unlikely.”

“Why?”

“Well… you don’t really get curses like that. What is putting someone in suspended animation going to do? Just take them out of the picture for a while. While people do do that, they don’t normally do it with a curse. By its very definition, a curse is created with bad intentions. Suspended animation doesn’t normally fit the bill.” He pauses. “You mentioned she’d need to be unhooked from machines to bring her here, I just assumed they were feeding and hydrating her. Were they not? Who decided it was a curse?”

“Oh, no you’re right. Those are the machines I meant. And it was a professional at the hospital who confirmed it.”

“Okay.” He looks back down at the tablet for a moment, tapping a finger against the table. “Unfortunately-”  _ Wait what! _ “-I’m going to have to get a good look at this curse myself before we can do much else.” Oh, okay. “Need to have a bit more knowledge of what we’re dealing with here. Considering it’s a death curse I can give you an estimate on how much it will cost.”

“Um.” He looks up at you then, raising an eyebrow at your noncommittal response. “Can we make a deal?”

“A deal?”

“Yes, so I’m paying you not with money but with a return service?”

“Is that your magic?”

“Making deals? Yes.” He leans back in his chair looking at you almost thoughtfully. It's hard to tell with how expressionless he is.

“Do your deals need to be even? This is a death curse, you’d need to do me a big service in return.”

“I could handle it.” If there’s one thing in your life you have confidence in, it’s your magic. “But no, I’m not affected by any discrepancies in my deals.”

“Good to know.” He leans back in his chair and studies you. “While I’m not averse to making a deal, I don’t currently have any need for one. Are you open for leaving it at a favour?.” Doing open-ended deals is a bad idea really, but it’s not like you had much choice. You doubted you could afford his services otherwise. And it wasn’t like there was anything you wouldn’t do for Jade anyway.

“I can do a favour, though if you think of anything before the deal is set, let me know.” You tell him, “so next step is to visit Jade in the hospital?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, I’m busy today.” He fiddles with the tablet for a second, “And tomorrow. Actually, the next free day is Friday is that okay with you?”

“Oh. It will do.” While going to the hospital and getting Jade cured sooner is ideal, it seems you’re not the only one in need of his services. You have time, it’s not like anything is going to happen to Jade at the hospital. Right?

“Do you have your own transport? Or did you use public?”

“Oh, I have my own car.”

“Great. You can give me a lift then.” He tells you. Uh, okay? “I’m free all day, what time would you like to go?”

“As early as possible. Getting Jade back on her feet is my top priority.”

“Okay,” he raises an eyebrow, “how about eight?”

“Sure.” You’d go earlier if you could, though even eight means getting up earlier than you’d normally prefer, especially considering you have to drive all the way out here to pick him up first.

“Great, eight on Friday it is then.” He makes a note on the tablet. “You pick me up and we’ll go check on your sister. If it’s a Snow White curse I should be able to do it straight away. A Sleeping Beauty curse I might have to do some research first, but I should be able to remove her curse on Friday.” Relief fills you at his words and you smile brightly at him. It gets you the tiniest smile in return, but with how stoic his face is you’ll take what you can get.


	2. Second Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I considered posting this early but then the epilogue dropped and I just wanted some cute happy DirkJake and this chapter doesn't quite fit the bill for me. So I haven't actually look at it all week, which means less editing than I was planning. Still, hopefully, there's not too many mistakes and it's still enjoyable.

You’ve only had one conversation with Dirk so far, but he seemed nice and he was an attractive fellow. When you’ve thought about him in the days leading up to Friday, that's what you’ve focused on. 

Standing in front of Derse Ends now you’re reminded of everything else he is as well. The atmosphere of this place really fits with the stories you’ve heard of Destroyers. And Dirk may be attractive but he’s still a Destroyer. He’s still dangerous. Something you’d do well not to forget, or let yourself be distracted from. You need him to help with Jade. But that’s all you need him for, all you can need him for.

Shaking your head to try and shake away the thoughts you make your way inside. You almost wish Dirk was scary, then there wouldn’t be any question of how you should feel about him.

When you enter Derse Ends you spot Dave sitting slumped behind the counter like he was last time. His head lifts as you approach.

“Here for Dirk again?”

“Yes… we had a meeting?” He shrugs.

‘It’s like living with a cat. You ever lived with a cat? You don’t own a cat, a cat owns you. They live their own lives, coming and going as they please. Do they have a schedule? Who knows? Are they going to spend all day inside sleeping in the most inconvenient spots or are they going to disappear outside all day? You won’t know if when they’ll come back, if ever. Maybe they’ll fall in love and never come back, maybe they’ll get mauled by a bear. You won’t ever know. It’s not like they tell you anything. You’re just standing on the porch shaking their food bowl calling out for adorable little Jasper, or Frigglish to come a running. I see that look, you think Frigglish is a strange name? That's what you get when you let a little kids name your pet. Of course, that's also how we got Jasper, didn’t see you react to that name. Roxy just has peculiar taste in naming things. Though I wouldn't say Rose’s is much better, what with Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer-”

“Uh.”

“Though that was a lizard, not a cat. The big difference between those creatures, Viceroy was a good boy, just hanging out in his tank while the cats went about getting fur on everything-”

“While that's interesting and all, I uh, I would really like to see Dirk?”

“Right, right, upstairs like before, the door on the opposite side this time. Might be open, might not. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” He’d said that the other day as well. A sober reminder of what Dirk was. You wonder what it’s like to work... with him? in the same building as him? You wonder what relationship Dirk and Dave have. They have the same last name, and they look similar. Are they related?

Part of you wants to stall and ask these questions of Dave, he seems the friendly, if overly talkative sort. But Jade comes first, and for that you need Dirk.

You follow Dave’s instructions. Unlike last time, when you reach the top of the stairs and look down the hallway all the doors are closed. The dark, gloomy atmosphere presses heavily against you.

It’s fine, you tell yourself. Dirk’s fine. Then you have to pause. Weren’t you just telling yourself that Dirk’s not fine? That he’s dangerous and really once this is done you shouldn’t see him again? Giving yourself some conflicting messages there. Even though you were just reassuring yourself, trying to get rid of the nerves, you really shouldn't think that. Thinking that leads to you wanting to spend more time with him. Leads to becoming friends with him. Leads to a higher chance that he’ll destroy you.

What you really should be doing is continuing down the hallway, picking him up and going to the hospital to help Jade. The quicker the better. With this in mind, you start marching down the hallway.

When you reach the door you hesitate, motivation dissipating. You shift from foot to foot facing the closed door. Last time you met in a meeting room, obviously designed to relax customers. Will this room be the same? Or will it be Dirk’s private domain, a room fitting for a Destroyer?

Well, you’re not going to find that out just standing here. Time to stop being a scaredy-cat and pucker up.

You push the door open with a bit more force than needed and wince at load smack it makes when hitting the wall. Then you forget all about the door.

The room is… not what you expected. Again. As if anything about Dirk is how you expected it. Even if you didn’t really know what you were expecting in the first place.

It’s a workroom. All around the edges of the room are workbenches covered in mostly electronics pieces, some are definitely robot parts. Also, there are… puppets?

In the middle of the room spread out on a tarp, is an android. Or, most of one. Looking at it even you can tell that it’s not quite finished. Even if it is currently looking quite like Dirk. Crouched beside it is the human Dirk. He’s got a part in one hand, a screwdriver in the other and he’s staring at you.

“Well, hi.”

“Ah, yes hello. Sorry about the door.” He shrugs, putting down the part and screwdriver.

“It’s fine. You didn’t damage anything.”

“I hope not.” You look away from Dirk to try and peer around the door to examine the wall. You take a half step into the room to do so, and suddenly Dirk is right there in front of you. He lifts up his hand, palm towards you like he’s going to push you back but doesn’t actually touch you.

“It’s fine. We going to visit you sister right?” You snap to attention, stepping out of the room and out of Dirks way.

“Yes, of course.” He steps out after you, closing the door behind him. You’re tempted to take one last peek at the android but you don’t want to get distracted. Jade, you remind yourself, Jade comes first.

The two of you are silent as you walk downstairs. Dave is still in the same slumped position behind the counter as before.

“Dave, I’m going out. Got a trip to make.”

“Yea, yea. Go out and do something interesting. Leave me here like the little sibling no one wants to play with because I still like playing pretend and you’re too old and grotty to be able to use your imagination. To busy doing adult things, like paying your taxes to pay any attention to little old me.”

“You are the little sibling.”

“By like 2 seconds. Barely noticeable, doesn’t mean a thing.”

“Except in that sad analogy you just used.”

“You-”

“Gotta go, bro.” Dirk cuts Dave off with a wave of one hand, the other he uses to push on your back a lightly to get you moving. You hadn’t even realized you’d stopped. You lead him out of the store and to your parked car. You feel a flicker of embarrassment at the state of it. Not that there’s anything wrong with your car, it’s just old. You have better things to spend your money on than a new car.

Dirk gets into the passenger seat without comment. The car thankfully starts on the first try and shortly you are driving away from Derse Ends and towards Jade.

“So,” he starts after several minutes of silent driving, “I have realized that I don’t know your name.”

“Oh! That wasn’t very gentlemanly of me. Forgetting to introduce myself. I’m Jake.” Then in a moment of panic over which last name to give him say, “Engley,” when you change your mind mid-word. If he notices he doesn’t say anything.

“To be fair, I did just go straight to business and didn’t ask.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have to.” He shrugs and falls silent. You rack your mind for something to say to him. All you can really think about is how weird his store is and you don’t think that would be a polite thing to tell him. Then a question does strike you.

“You and Dave are-” related? Together? How are you gonna end this question?

“Brothers,  hence me calling him bro.”

“Ah.”

“We have two sisters as well, they also help out at the shop.”

“Rose and Roxy?” You see him give you a look out of the corner of your eye. “Dave mentioned them.”

“Yeah, that’s them.”

“A family affair then?”

“Yeah.”

“You sell a lot of…  miscellaneous items in your store.”

“We have a lot of varied interests. When we have things we don’t want anymore, we put them in the store. It’s… mostly a front to be honest. Most of our money comes from people who want to engage our services.”

“Ah.” You say, thinking about how you’re not going to pay him. It’s not like you’re stealing from him, you’ll do a deal and he’ll get something he wants in return so really, it’s all good. So long as they aren’t in need of a bit more money. You hope they aren’t in need of money.

“So, it’s just you and your sister? Jade, you said?”

“Yes, her name is Jade. And there is extended family, we are reasonably close to a couple of our cousins but yes, mostly it’s just... her and me against the world.” Your voice is very quiet when you end that sentence. You flick a glance at Dirk but he’s sitting totally still looking out the windscreen. You wonder if he even heard you.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get her back to normal in no time.” It sounds like a platitude, and it is really. But there’s a conviction behind his flat voice that you can’t deny.

“Thanks.” And that effectively ends that conversation. The hospital is still a ways away, you haven’t even reached Prospit yet. You wrack your brains for something else to ask, but he beats you to it.

“So what do you do?”

“Do?”

“For a living, you mentioned having a job.” He clarifies.

“Right, of course. I’m just another paper-pusher working at a low-income, dead-end job.” There’s another pause at the bitterness in your voice and wonder if you’ll ever be able to stop making things awkward and ruining the conversation.

“Okay, what about… movies. Do you like movies?”

“Yes!” You say, pushing aside other thought and jumping on this new subject. “I love movies.”

“Great. Good. Wonderful. You have any favourites?”

“My favourite is Avatar!” There’s another pause and out of the corner of your eye, you see his head slowly turn to look at you. In the silence following you proclamation, you wonder what you did wrong this time.

“The Last Airbender or James Cameron?”

“Why, the movie made by James Cameron. What’s The Last Airbender?”

“Its… don’t worry about it. The movie isn’t worth it.”

“Are you sure? I’ve never seen a movie didn’t like!”

“Is that so?”

“Indeed!” You flash him a bright grin.

“I believe it.” He says, there’s a dryness to his voice, but it doesn’t seem mocking so you ignore it and instead launch into a discussion on why all movies are great. This conversation manages to last, and you keep it going till you reach the hospital and further, though you’re running out of things to say by then and probably repeating yourself. You take a small break when you reach the hospital and he pulls out a pair of triangular sunglasses to wear. You just can’t help staring at him in disbelief, mouth still open from the word you were speaking. He turns towards you, face perfectly stoic and raises one perfect eyebrow and yeah okay. That’s a look. But the shades themselves are ridiculous and no one can blame you for being dumbfounded by them.

Of course any conversation you might restart after that incident dies when you push into Jade’s hospital room and see her lying still as death. It’s so jarring to see her like this. She’s such a lively person, this is just plain  _ wrong _ .

You stop at the foot of her bed but Dirk walks around to the far side and up to the front of the bed.

“Oh.” His voice is real soft and he reaches out towards her face. You can’t help but tense but he doesn’t actually touch her. “This is the real deal.”

And you’d forgotten. You’d forgotten who he was. Forgotten  _ what _ he was. But that one sentence brought it all back. His face was as blank as always, but he couldn’t hide the raw  _ hunger _ in his voice. They say Destroyers hunger for destruction. That the urge, the desire, the  _ need _ to ruin everything,  _ everyone _ they touch is just as much a part of them as needing to breathe.

And here one is, standing over your sister's helpless body.

“This isn’t a Snow White curse.” He says as if you didn’t feel like your whole world had just shifted. “She’s not just asleep. She’s being drained.”

“Wait, what?”

“I… I’m going to have to do some research.” You feel a flicker of frustration.

“So what, you make me wait a week, we came all the way out here, so you take one look at her and say you don’t know how to help?” The frustration makes you snap. He looks at you silently for a moment, oh so very still. If you didn’t know better you’d say he wasn’t breathing. Actually, maybe he wasn’t because he abruptly sucks in a huge breath.

“I know how to remove a Snow White curse, I’m pretty confident I’d have known what to do if it was modified into a Sleeping Beauty curse with a little research. But this.” He gestures to Jade. “I’ve never seen anything like it, never heard anything… I’m starting from scratch here. I don’t even know what kind of magic could do this.”

“You said her life force is being… taken. Stolen.”

“That would make sense. You think this is a thief?” He pauses. “You… think you know who did this?”

You don’t say anything. You can’t. You’ve spent your whole life hiding from her. Avoiding even thinking about her as if she was some sort of boogie man that would apparate at the very thought of her name.

“Okay, that doesn’t matter. Thief is enough to get started.” He looks back down at Jade. “Do you still have the flower that transferred the curse to her?” You furrow your brow trying to remember. What happened to the flower?

“I… don’t know.”

“When they confirmed it was a curse, did you get anyone assigned to the investigate?”

“No.”

“Okay, then unless you threw it out you probably still have it. Just give me tonight. We’ll come back tomorrow and get this sorted. Bring the flower. I don’t know if it’ll be any help but better to have it and not use it than need it and don’t.”

“Right, will you need a lift again tomorrow?” He turns to you and studies you for a moment. You shift uncomfortably under his scrutiny.

“Yeah, sure.” He says eventually, stepping away from the bed. He comes to stand by the foot of the bed by you and two of you just watch Jade sleep for a moment. You’re reluctant to leave her again, but the sooner you get Dirk home, the sooner he can start his research and figure out what he needs to do for her.

You’re silent on the walk back to the car. It’s not till you start driving again that you start to think about things to say to him. You can really only think of one thing and blurt it out before you can think better about it.

“Are the myths about Destroyers true?” You have one of those moments where he goes still as a statue again, possibly not even breathing, though this time there’s no rush of air to breathe when he starts moving again.

“Breaker.” He says.

“Excuse me?”

“We prefer Breaker to Destroyer.”

“Oh. Ok. Sorry.” And for a moment you think that's all he’s going to say.

“Because when you destroy something it's gone forever, if you break something it can be fixed, made better and stronger than it was before if wanted.” Now you feel guilty. That sounds like something someones put a lot of thought into. And it obviously means a lot to Dirk.

“Ok.” Your voice is softer than you meant it to be.

“What myths exactly do you want debunking or confirming?”

“Oh, uh. Is it true that your… that you always want to break things?”

“It’s… pretty prevalent yes.”

“Oh.”

“Is it hard to deal with?” He shrugs.

“It can be. But the more things you break, the weaker the urge is.” 

“Do you break a lot of things?”

“Curse breaking is a lucrative business.” And then, because you are an unthinking asswipe, you blurt out.

“Have you ever hurt anyone?” The silence after you ask the question is loud and oppressive. For a long while, the two of you just sit there. You almost don’t think he’s going to answer this one, and really, he has every right not to. Eventually, though, he does speak.

“Only myself.” And well serves you right. If you didn’t feel guilty before you certainly do now. “I’m sure you’ve heard it called a hunger. A hunger to break things. To… destroy things. And that’s what it’s like. Only instead of hungry for food, you’re hungry to feed your magic, to use it. When someone puts your favourite food in front of you, you don’t  _ have  _ it eat it. Maybe you’ll have less self-control if you’re starving, but there's no need to ever let it get that far. That's why we have three meals a day, or just constantly eat snacks all day and avoid ever being hungry enough to even need a meal. You’ve seen my workshop. Do you think my magic cares if it’s fed on decadent expensive chocolate or soggy chips someone threw out? It’s not sentient. It doesn’t have taste buds.

“And in the event that I only want to eat some parts of a meal? Or there's some special process that needs to be done first. I. Do. Research. Like castor beans. The seeds are processed to make castor oil, means they’re safe right? No, by themselves the seed are poisonous. Wouldn’t want to go up to one, not knowing what you’re doing and just eat that. Or if the plant has a parasite, like Nuytsia, that you want to eat. Got to be careful once it’s struck into the roots of others. Don’t want to hurt the host while you’re devouring the parasite.”

There’s another pause while you try to process all the information he dumped in your lap. These Striders really do like there analogies don’t they? You can guess that the last bit, about parasites, was in reference to Jade. He doesn’t want to hurt her while removing her curse. You feel like a right wretch. You’re sure you could have done research. You’re sure you could have looked Breakers up and found countless articles on them. You could have known this stuff before you let your fears insult him. Before-

“Not that you’d eat Nuytsia. It’s a tree.” He says suddenly.

“Oh.” You reply thoughtlessly, abruptly jarred from your spiraling thoughts.

“Yeah.” You’d almost think you’d expect the awkward pauses in conversation with him by now. He seems to have run out of words, content to just sit in silence but you’ve got some begging to be released.

“I’m sorry.” You see him look at you out of the corner of your eye but you stare resolutely out the windscreen at the road.

“Yeah. It’s fine.”

“No. I mean… I should have known. For all the stories out there about Breakers, I’m sure there are just as many articles with actual facts in them. I should have done research, before coming along and asking for your help. Instead I just… believed the stories. Even after talking to you the other day I just… ignored how… they didn't fit you and stuck with my prejudices.” He shrugs and turned to look away from you, out the passenger window.

“It happens. A lot.”

“It’s just. You sounded really hungry back there. When you were looking at the curse.” He sighs, still looking out the window.

“Keeping with the hunger analogy… sometimes you can have too much you know? Eat so much you get sick. I’ve didn’t want that to happen while I was in the middle of breaking your sister’s curse. So I’ve been… rationing. I’m not starving. I’m not going to suddenly attack you or anything.”

“No! I know that.” He looks at you.

“Do you?”

“I know it doesn’t seem like it. But I am sorry for being so insensitive. And I do believe you.” You tell him earnestly as you arrive at Derse Ends. You can understand if he doesn’t believe you, after what you just said. You guess you’ll just have to convince him.

“Okay.” He says noncommittally. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Uh, Bye.” You call after him helplessly. You sit in your car and watch his back as he walks up to his shop. In the doorway, he pauses and flicks a glance over his shoulder at you. It’s fleeting though so you can’t get a good look at his expression if he even had one. All you can do is hope you haven’t screwed everything up to bad.


	3. Third Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was always the longest but editing really buffed it up. Anyway, the end is here. I hope you guys enjoy it. I'm not sure if this chapter needs warnings or not? I don't think it's that bad but better safe than sorry. Technically nothing is badly harmed but there are descriptions of injuries incurred. Nothing too graphic, I think. More detailed warnings in the endnotes.

When you go to pick Dirk up the next day he’s waiting out front with someone else. From the similarities between them, you guess this is one of his sisters.

He nods towards your car when you park and they both approach. He slides into the passenger's seat like yesterday and she swings into the back.

“Hi!” She greets you cheerfully.

“Hello?” Your greeting is a bit more hesitant and confused.

“Hey, this is Roxy, my sister. She's going to be helping today.” Dirk tells you.

“Oh. How?”

“Yea Dirky, how am I helping?” You glance at Roxy’s in your rearview mirror. She's sitting the middle of the back seat leaning forward, elbows resting on the two front seats. She at least has the flimsy waist seatbelt on, even if she doesn't appear to have it tight enough to keep her in the seat. You wonder how much protection it even offers and resolve to drive carefully.

“Roxy's a Rogue, obviously her powers are similar to those of the Thief. We’re going to use her as a kind of counterpoint for the curse. We want to get as much… energy as we can back from the curse. Even so Jade might be weak when she first wakes up.”

“We can deal with that, as long as she does wake up.”

“She will! We're going to make sure of it.” Roxy assures you. “Say, how old is your sister?”

“My age. We're twins. Why?”

“Just curious, are you guys identical or fraternal twins? How much alike do you guys look?”

“ We're fraternal twins, but still pretty alike I guess?”

“Nice.” Glancing at her you see she's wearing a shark's grin and nodding her head. “She single?”

“Roxy, please.” Dirk interrupts before you can answer.

“What? I'm asking for a friend. Or did you forget I'm taken?” She reaches forward waves a hand between the two of you. On her ring finger is a simple pink band. It looks… plastic.

“You got that out of your cereal box this morning.”

“Yes! Jakey, it was so romantic, like those scenes in movies where someone proposes by getting the ring baked in a cake and the person almost chips their tooth on it accidentally biting it. Except it's plastic and was more dangerous when it got stuck in my throat and choked me.”

“Sounds like quite the occasion.” You tell her amused.

“It was! Though we'll probably break up next month when I finish the box and throw it out.”

“That's certainly one way to break up a relationship.”

“You really should get married first, then as the widow, you get to keep all the belongings,” Dirk says dryly.

“Yes!” Roxy exclaims, then leans forward real close to you. “Will you be the best man in my marriage to a box of Toasty Crunch Jakey?”

“Don't brides have bridesmaids, not best men? And what about your siblings?”

“I'm marrying a box of cereal Jake, why are you worrying about gender roles now? Also, Dirky's going to walk me down the aisle, Davey's gonna be the flower girl and Rosie's going to officiate.”

The rather ridiculous conversation continues as you drive with Dirk making sarcastic comments and spurring Roxy's wedding plans into becoming a large extravagant event with doves, celebrities and apparently everybody dressing as cats.

The conversation loses your attention as you get closer to the hospital, nerves, and excitement clogging your throat. Dirk and Roxy either sense the change in atmosphere or share your feelings because they also grow quite as you arrive at the hospital. The three of you are silent as you enter the hospital.

When you reach Jade's room you catch Dirks arm, while Roxy slips past. He turns to you with a raised eyebrow.

“Have you thought about what you want for my end of the deal?” You ask him. You're a little surprised to realize you're close enough to the shape of his eyes behind his sunglasses. You watch as he blinks at you for a moment.

“Oh... no. I haven't settled on anything yet.”

“Okay.” You say, pushing aside your disappointment. “We’ll stick with a favour to be used at a later time. But we should make the deal official before you go any further.”

“How do we do that?” You let his arm go and close your eyes, pulling on your magic. It comes eagerly to your call, as always. Technically you don’t need to do this, your magic is always running just beneath the surface. The mere mention of a potential agreement pulls on your magic and sets the deal. The benefit of calling your magic like this is that it makes the deal official. Lets you set parameters and know who the deal is set with. Otherwise, you just have vague, unhelpful feelings that and unhappy magic.

Of course, with this deal, the parameter you’re setting is a currently unknown favour, but at least you’ll know who it’s with.

When you open your eyes you know they're glowing entirely green, like your iris has swallowed the rest of eye. You reach out a hand for him to shake, it's covered in the swirling patterns of your magic, like moving green tattoos.

“Dirk Strider, in exchange for breaking the curse on my sister, I owe you one favour, to be described and used at your discretion.” Wordlessly he reaches out and shakes your hand. Which is all he needs to do to accept the deal.

“Okay.” He says when you've finished the handshake and your little light show is done. “Let's go sort out your sister.” You follow him into the room and hover awkwardly by the door as he looks over Jade’s bed. Roxy has already jumped up and made herself at home on the bed at Jade's feet.

“Do you think we should unhook her from the machines? She wouldn't die in the, what? Half an hour at most this will take? Right? Might be better if she doesn't wake up with all that around her face.” Roxy suggests and you jump on the chance to do something other than stand around.

“I'll get a nurse.” You're already turning and leaving as you speak. If either of them has anything to say about it, you're too far away by the time they get the words out to hear it.

You’re not too sure where to go so you end up back at the reception at the front of the hospital. When you ask for someone to take her off the machines you get a sympathetic look.

“Time to let her go?”

“She’s cursed. I have contracted a professional to remove it.”

“I see.” She says, then seems to realize what you mean. You’re startled as her expression morphs into horror. “You brought a _destroyer_ here? Do you know how expensive the equipment is? If they wreck anything you’ll have to pay for it.” At first, you just stare at her blankly. How were you not prepared for this? Not expecting it? After all, didn’t you have the same feelings about Breakers just yesterday?

Now you think of Dirk’s melancholy quiet, his overeager explanation of his powers and just, Dirk himself and feel guilt and anger curl in your stomach.

“He’s not going to break anything but the curse.” You're offended on Dirk’s behalf, your voice comes out sharp and she purses her lips in response.

“As I said, if he does break any of the equipment, it’s going on your bill. I’ll send someone up right away to get the machines out of the room to try and avoid it.” With that she turns away, dismissing you. You stare at the side of her face as she ignores you. You want to say something, defend Dirk, tell her off for being prejudiced but you’re not sure what or how. And even if you did know, you doubt you could say anything that would change her mind.

Instead, you just leave in silence. When you get back to Jade’s room there are already nurses in there removing the machines. Roxy and Dirk stand against the far wall. Dirk as stoic as usual but Roxy has her arms folded and a scowl on her face. The nurses are working as quickly as they can, sending worried and frightened glances over at the siblings.

Again the urge to defend Dirk surges, hypocritically you want to call them out on their behaviour but you still don’t know what to say. You only met Dirk yesterday, and after the conversation in the car, you’re not sure you have the right anyway. Instead, you walk into the room and stand protectively on Dirks other side, joining Roxy in scowling as the ignorant nurses. You end up standing close enough that your arms brush and you can feel some of the tension leave him when you stop beside him. Roxy seems to feel it as well because she leans forward slightly to flash you a smile, before going back to scowling at the nurses.

The three of you are silent as they finish and wheel the machines out of there. Dirk sighs as the door closes behind them and Roxy mutters some unflattering things under her breath. You just hover uselessly. Trying not to look as awkward as you feel you stick your hands in your pockets. You find something in the right pocket and spend a moment feeling it up trying to figure out what it is.

“Oh.” You pull out the flower that was the cause of all this. It looks rather forlorn, having lost most of its petals after being squished and forgotten in your pocket. Honestly, that was probably rather reckless, you’re lucky you didn’t prick yourself on it. Not that you know enough about curses to know if you still would have been affected even after it had gotten Jade. “I brought this.”

“Hmmm?” Dirk and Roxy look up from Jade at you, Roxy’s confusion is plain and even Dirk seems to take a minute to register what you're holding out. “Oh right. The flower.” He takes it from you and studies it for a moment, a soft orange light filters out the sides of his shades and you guess he’s examining it with his magic.

“Whut?” Roxy questions.

“Jade was cursed when she pricked her finger on the flower.” You explain.

“Let’s get started.” Dirk interrupts, doubtlessly not having a word of that little exchange, he strides over to the bed, wheeling it away from the wall into the middle of the room. Roxy once again takes her place at the end of Jade's bed while Dirk stands at the head, holding the flower above Jade’s head. “Can you stand over there, Jake?” Dirk gestures at the wall behind Roxy.

Childishly, part of you doesn’t want to. You don’t really know if there’ll be much to see but if there is anything Roxy will be blocking it from there. The other part, the stronger, apparently more mature part, tells you that breaking Jade's curse is the most important thing right now and you’d stand out on the roof if he told you to. So you move without comment.

There’s a moment of silence, and you guess they’re both gathering their magic, getting ready for… whatever you’d call this.

“Okay,” Roxy says rolling her shoulders, “I’m ready.”

“Good. Start calling.” You assume she does because she certainly reacts to something. Curling over and hunching down on the bed. You can see Dirk over her head now, staring down at Jade. Nothing really interesting happens for a while and you just stand there, watching their still forms in silence.

Then suddenly, you can feel it. Whatever _it_ is.

It saturates the room. Heavy, oppressive, suffocating. It claws at you, weighs you down, sucks the breath out of your lungs.

Wanting. Needing. Hungering.

For what? What does it want? You don’t know. You can’t tell. This isn’t yours. It isn’t a part of you. You’re not controlling it. If anything you’re the prey.

Is this Dirk’s magic? Is it _Hers_? Twisted and tainted beyond recognition. Some slathering beast that eats at her as much as it helps her. That causes her to do stuff like this in order to survive. Steal other people's lives, eat them to survive being eaten herself.

You can feel it like a real presence in the room hovering over you all. Like _She’s_ in the room, standing over your shoulder ready to punish you for some imagined slight.

Panic makes you pull on your own magic.

Potentially a stupid decision. Potentially the worst you’ve ever made, and considering who you are that’s saying something. But you can’t just stand here and do nothing. Just stand here and let this happen. To you, to Roxy, Dirk, _Jade_ . You don’t know what's happening. You don’t even know if some _is_ happening. You don’t know if you’ll be able to help if there is. You make deals, pacts, agreements. Not, whatever is needed to deal with this. But you can at least try.

Your magic floods through you easily, responding as eagerly as ever to your call. You open your eyes - _when had you closed them?_ \- and the room is suddenly thick with all the things you couldn’t see before.

Roxy, curled over in front of you is as pink as her eyes. Her power emanates from her in a soft glow, tendrils rolling off in soothing, persuasive waves. The tendrils mix and coil with green magic that hangs in the air. Jade’s magic. The pink pulling, persuading, cajoling the green towards her.

In front of her, you know is Jade. Except you can’t see her. Not like this, not when all her magic seems to have been pulled out of her and hung in the air instead of concentrated inside her body.

Beyond you see Dirk. He’s orange, of course, you’ve seen his eyes. His magic flickers like lightning around him, a continuous current running along his skin. Some flickers out towards where Jade’s body lies, towards the magic in the air and towards the dark void he holds in his hands.

And layered over everything, over everyone, is a thick black fog. It doesn’t appear to have a source, it just hangs in the air like the magic it’s pulled out of Jade. It presses down on you like a wet blanket, too heavy for fog.

Then a section coalesces into a solid form, a handful of long sharp claws. They reach out towards you, to fast to dodge and scratch at you, cutting into your arm as they drag down it, but instead of blood, you bleed your own green magic.

Fear fills you. All you’ve done is give it something else to eat. Laid out more power for it to gorge itself on. You don’t have any way to fight this. The fog coalesces into claws once again, reaching out towards you.

And then.

Orange.

Lightning coming from behind you, sparking through you, soothing, calming, protective. It catches the claws. Dissolves them, clears away the dark fog.

For a moment.

Then slowly, insidiously the shadows filter back into the clear space. Now that you're looking for it you can see orange flickering through the fog, dissolving fistfuls. _Destroying_ it.

You look at Dirk, with his flickering orange glow, with his protective lightning and think, _you were afraid of this?_

Then as you watch Dirk, in his flickering orange lightning you see a flash of green. _Your green_. Blinking you take stock of your magic, it’s all here, apart from the little bit taken by the fog.

And the part holding your deal together.

Now that you’re aware of it you can feel your magic attached to Dirk. Attached directly to what he’s doing. Because this is part of your agreement isn’t it? He removes the curse from Jade and you give him a favour. Can you use this?

You know how to use your magic. You how to officially seal a pact. You know how to use your magic to fulfill your part of the pact. Can you use it to help him fulfill his part?

You consider your options. First, you want to put more magic into this connection between the two of you. Easy enough. You can feel the link with your magic because it is your magic. You just push more into the connection, strengthening it. This might have unintended consequences later, but Jade is worth it. You watch Dirk as you pour more power into your connection and see the green flashes become longer and more frequent. You don’t know how powerful you’re going to need this connection, you may have to put more power into it later but for now, you’re satisfied with its strength.

Next step is harder, something you’ve never done before. Your magic didn’t come with a manual, you’d learned it through instinct and trial and error. Learning to fulfill your side of a deal with your magic, instead of manually was the hardest. And now you want to take that and… swap it. Instead of using your magic to satisfy your side of the deal, you want to use it satisfy his.

Of course, this is made even more difficult by the fact that you don’t really know what Dirk is doing, how his magic works. All you can tell is that his lightning seems to dissolve the fog where they touch.

But maybe you don’t need to know. His side of the deal is removing the curse from your sister. Closing your eyes you block out the sight of all the magic in the room and focus on the connection you can feel. You push the magic as far down the connection as you can, shifting it from just keeping the deal in play, to pressing on him to complete his side of the deal. Then you start to structure the magic pressing on him. This here is the curse. This here is Dirk’s magic. This magic, responding to Dirk’s call, lashes out and destroys the curse.

You picture the curse not as fog, but a great monster. Its body sits heavy in your hands, suckling on your own magic as you touch it. Rising from the body are seemingly endless tentacles. They press heavily against everything in the room, taking up space that used to belong to the air, coiling around what little furniture there is, suffocating the room's occupants. Slowly constricting, and leeching the magic out of everyone here.

You reach out with your magic, eternally hungry, and bite at the tentacles packaged into the room. You tear chunks from the appendages, and swallow - _uhh -_ , the flesh at once sating and starving you. Black and green liquid oozes from where you’ve ripped the tentacles like blood, you lap up the black liquid before it can fall to the floor. The green slides off by your tongue, evaporating into pure power and called over to Roxy and Jade. As soon as you pull away, more tentacles grow from the rendered flesh. Eventually, the curse will run out of the energy it needs to refill what you clear, but unfortunately, it will take time.

The tentacle around Roxy uncoils pulling away before lashing forward, trying for a more direct attack. You impose your magic between them, the tentacle hits your wing - _my what?_ \- hard but this is what you’ve designed it for this time and the tentacle just liquifies when it hits your magic. Again you hungrily drink down the dark liquid.

Thwarted they go after the other occupant in the room without defenses. The tentacle around Jake - _wait, me?_ \- uncoils and tries to lash at him as it did Roxy. You shield him the same as you did Roxy with your other wing.

Disgruntled the tentacles give up on direct attacks for now and go back to suffocating everyone. You let them, you can deal with this before the ambient leeching gets dangerous. You swipe out at the tentacles with your beak, ripping off several slurping them up like spaghetti. Technically you should be able to eat with any of the magic you touch the curse with, but when you impose concrete forms on the abstract you create rules you have to follow. Also, you’re holding the body of the curse in your talons so they are otherwise occupied and unable to lash out.

Your strike is different this time though, when you lash out there's more power there, a green fire fulling your mouth and curling out the edges that cauterizes the wounds. Green vapour still drifts from the wounds following Roxy’s call. You suck the dismembered tentacles down your throat and mourn the lack of dark liquid to chase them down with. This is better though. A surprise certainly, but a good, time-saving surprise.

You continue to lash out at the tentacles, rend them from the creature and devour them. It’s a good thing you let your hunger grow more than normal, as it is you’re nearing a strange fullness once the room is clear of tentacles and all that's left is the writhing body in your talons. Due to the way you’ve structured your magic the main body of the curse is an actual body.

It looks like an inky black octopus. Under where your talons grip is what's left of the tentacles that once filled the room. Above is its rounded head and mantle. It looks up at you with an empty white gaze and a mouth where it shouldn’t be, that’s too wide with too many rows of too sharp teeth, howling silently.

Thanks for the help, but this you can do this yourself. You start to lean forward, your beak opening as you get closer to the last of the curse clutched in your talons and boot Jake.

You rapidly blink your suddenly dry eyes. Hadn’t you closed them? You suppose you must have opened them again sometime during that… whatever that was. How long did that take? It didn’t feel like it took a long time. Then again a lot did seem to happen.

You’re distracted from your thought when you hear the sheets on the bed rustling. Dry eyes or no you’re immediately stumbling forward towards Jade. You see her stirring and reach her just as her eyes flutter open.

“Jake? What…”

“Jade.” Suddenly your eyes are the opposite of dry, welling with relieved tears. Jade groans, lifts one arm before letting it drop down onto the bed, obviously still tired.

“I feel so weak. What happened?”

“You were cursed! Don’t worry we fixed you right up.” Roxy pipes up. She's gotten off the bed and is standing to the side with Dirk.

“Cursed? What-” Jade’s face hardens. “The flower. Of course, goddamn what an idiot move.”

“It’s all fine like Roxy said we removed it.” She looks from you to Roxy and Dirk.

“Removed it? You mean… one of you is a Destroyer?”

“Breaker. The preferred term is Breaker. Or Prince. You know, with the way we call the other powers by their arbitrary titles. We could do the same with Princes and Bards too.” Roxy’s voice is tight, but her smile doesn’t flatter.

“I didn’t even know they were called Princes and Bards.” You blurt thoughtlessly.

“Well, now you do.” Roxy’s voice is cheerful again. Apparently, that wasn’t such a faux pas.

“Okay, thank you for… breaking my curse.” She turns to you again. “How long was I out?”

“Just a week.” You assure her. She frowns.

“It certainly feels like longer.”

“The curse was draining your magic. We did our best to get as much as we could back to you but getting rid of your curse itself was top priority.” Dirk speaks this time. Jade nods at him.

“That makes sense.” She yawns. “Are we… Are we at the hospital?”

“Yes. When I found you…” You cut off when your voice starts to wobble. You managed to talk about this with Dirk the other day fine but apparently today you’re going to have trouble. Jade reaches out to grab your hand and squeezes.

“I’m fine now, right? We can sign me out and go home now.”

“They’ll probably want you to stay, to keep an eye on you.”

“They can’t keep me here against my will.”

“No.” You say. You glance and Roxy and Dirk. “We’ll have to take them home too, I gave them a lift.”

“Okay, better go get the ball rolling then. The sooner I can get out of here the better.”

Jade stands up slowly and leans against you as you lead her down to the reception. The receptionist is not happy with you, but at least she doesn’t continue to ignore you from before. She implies you should have found someone back in the unit and starts to make a fuss. You lean in close and remind her you have a Breaker - ahem, a Prince - with you and that really, doesn’t she want you out as soon as possible?

That puts a fire under her and you get out in no time. Jade sits in the back and falls asleep on Roxy as you drive. The rest of you keep conversation low and at a minimum to avoid waking her.

When you reach Derse Ends Roxy gently tilts Jade over so she’s leaning against the car door instead and slips out. Dirk undoes his seatbelt and opens his door but pauses before getting out of the car. He looks at you, and look him a little clueless.

“Uh.” He says and you can feel your eyebrows jump. Is he. Is he,  _nervous?_

“Yes, Dirk?” He takes a deep breath.

“Do you… wanttogooutwithme.” He says all in that breath. It takes you a second to parse what he’s said and realize he’s asked you a question. Then longer to understand the question because honestly you wouldn’t have thought he'd be interested after yesterday. In the silence immediately following, he twists to face the door looks like he’s going to bolt.

“Yes!” You exclaim before he can leave. You forget to modulate your voice and you both freeze as Jade mumbles and shift in the backseat but thankfully doesn’t wake up.

“Ok, great.” He gives you a smile. A real genuine smile and wow. Yes. More of those, please. You’re disappointed when he turns from you to pull out his phone before he turns back and hands it to you. “Want to give me your number? Or I could give you mine, then if you change your mind you don’t have to deal with me.” He starts pulling his hand back as he says the last bit obviously changing his mind about this action. Alarmed you grab his phone before he can put it away.

“I’m not going to change my mind about going on a date with you.” You tell him as you enter your number into his contacts and send yourself a message. If anything, you think he’s the one who’ll change their mind. But you still owe him so having his number is useful anyway. When you’re done you hand his phone back and your fingers brush as he takes it.

You feel like a school kid. All nervous and giggly with butterflies in your stomach over your crush touching you.

“I’ll let you get her home then.” He gestures with his head towards Jade in the backseat. “We can sort out the details later.”

“I’ll message you when I get home.” You tell him eagerly and you do.

You're rewarded when you meet up with him for dinner the week after is another stunning smile. You think you could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter container description of wounds, dismemberment, eating said limbs and the implied eating of a "living creature", all of which is done to something that is neither a creature nor living and doesn't feel anything.

**Author's Note:**

> This might be the longest thing I've ever written, it's certainly the longest thing I've finished. Kind of. I don't have the will to edit it all together so you get it in three parts. Hopefully, updates will be once a week.  
> Constructive criticism welcome and if you see any mistakes please tell me, thanks.


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